Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

"I'm so cold," Mihosaid, too quietly for any of the others to hear over the storm. She especiallydid not want Ren and Hachiro to hear her, knowing that however cold she mightbe, it would be nothing compared to what they had endured at the hands of theWoman in White.

Miho watched Kubo, careful tofollow his every step. Beyond him she could see several ghosts urging them on,racing ahead and then beckoning for them to follow. The old monk seemed able todo more than see them. Miho thought he could hear them as well, or understoodthem some other way, for he insisted they were here to help, that the presenceof the winter witch had given them a kind of anchor in the world, had wokenthose who had not yet accepted their own deaths. Ren had wondered why theghosts would help them, then, since that sounded to him like a good thing, andthe answer had been simple. Death — at least until their spirits passedfrom this world into the next — was hollow and cold, and if Yuki-Onnameant to kill, they meant to stop her.

Especially if she meant to killpeople they loved.

One of the spirits ahead wasSora. Miho had seen Hana earlier as well. Now she glanced back through thestorm and saw three figures rushing after her and Mr. Yamato, two living boysand one dead one — Jiro's ghost. In life, Jiro had been Hachiro's best friend.Now the boy's spirit raced along between Hachiro and Ren as if he were alive aswell and in just as much peril. But he did not feel the cold that clawed theirbones and slashed their skin.

"Are they still here?" Mr. Yamato asked. "The ghosts?"

It wasn't the mask blocking hisvision. Of all of them, Mr. Yamato was the only one who had never encounteredthe supernatural directly before. He could not see the ghosts. He had to taketheir presence, and Kubo's words, on faith.

"Yes," she said."They are."

Up ahead, she saw Kubo turn tothe left in front of a steep, rocky ledge, and she realized that they hadreached the cave he had asked her to tell Kara about. Hope gave her a spike ofrenewed vigor and she picked up her pace, pulling Mr. Yamato by the hand. Ifthey could get out of the storm they would have a moment to think, Kubo mightbe able to create some kind of mystical shield to hide them completely, Karawould catch up to them, and then they would just have to somehow get back toSakura, find Ume, and -

The wind scooped her off theground, her boots dangling beneath her. Miho spun, arms outflung, breath stolenfrom her lungs, ice crusting her whole body. And then she fell, hit the snowand rolled. When she looked up, she saw that the others had all been tossedaround as well. They lay sprawled in the snow, trying to climb to their feet,as the ghosts scattered to hide in the trees.

Kubo stood alone, unmasked,unprotected.

As Yuki-Onna glided toward him,floating above the snow, the storm carrying and caressing her. Her jaws openedwide, rows of teeth stained with blood, white hair flowing.

With a gesture, she stole Kubo'sbreath. He clutched at his throat, and ice began to form around his face andhands, covering his eyes.

Mai sat in the passenger seatwhile Ume drove them toward Takigami Mountain. At the hospital, only a fewflakes had fluttered lazily from the sky. But now she leaned over to lookthrough the windshield and could barely see the mountain ahead. The snow wasnot coming down terribly hard, but the mountain was a white blur. Winter hadclaimed it, hidden it, almost as if it had been dragged from this world intoanother.

"Don't go to the parkinglot," Sakura said from the back seat.

"What?" Ume said,frowning. "Why?"

"Take the next left. Whenit forks to the right, go that way. I will tell you when to stop."

Mai shuddered. She thought sheheard something different in Sakura's voice. Something. . other. She turnedin her seat and studied the girl in the back seat. Sakura had changed quicklyin the hospital, pulling on a thick sweater and jacket, black pants and boots. Shehad removed the bandages wrapped around her head. They were spotted with blood,which had gotten sticky and matted her hair in one spot. Mai thought someonehad said there were stitches in her scalp, but that the doctors had not beensure how much damage might have been done to her brain. Her skull had beencracked or fractured or something like that.

But not anymore.

"Sakura?" Maiventured.

The girl in the back seat lookedlike Sakura. Same eyes, same nose, same severe, jagged haircut. But somethingin her expression seemed different, and the voice. . she did not sound thesame.

The girl in the back seat shookher head.

"You're not Sakura?" Ume asked, a fearful tremor in her voice.

"Ume!" Mai yelled.

The storm had become blindingnow, the visibility perhaps ten feet beyond the nose of the car, and with herattention on the rearview mirror, Ume had nearly driven them into a ditch.

She spun the wheel to rightthem. The tires skidded, the rear of the car slewing sideways. One or twotense, heart-pounding seconds passed and then they were shooting along the roadagain. A road appeared on the left.

"There," Sakura said,pointing.

Ume braked carefully and tookthe turn onto the side road, then rolled onto the side road bent over thesteering wheel, looking for the fork.

"So where is Sakura?" Mai asked. She hadn't meant to, wasn't sure she wanted the answer, but thewords had just popped out.

Sakura looked at her — orsomeone did, using Sakura's eyes. "She's here. We're both here."

Ume's voice, when she spoke, wasa mouse-squeak. "Akane?"

The ghost, the girl in the backseat, said "Keep your eyes on the road."

"I'm sorry," Ume said,voice still small and broken.

Mai wasn't sure if she wasapologizing for nearly crashing the car or for something else, for her greatestsin, and she did not ask. This was between Ume and her heart, between Ume andthe ghost of the girl whose life she had taken.

A moment later, Ume turned rightat the fork and they were driving through several inches of snow, the tiresslipping, then catching. The mountain loomed up on the right, the bottom of theslope and the woods less than a hundred yards away.

"What now?" Mai asked.

"Follow the ghosts,"said the girl in the back seat.

Mai was about to ask what shemeant, but then Ume squeaked again and Mai looked up, and they all saw theapparitions looming in the storm ahead. They were pointing to a small pull-offthat looked to lead up the mountain.

Ume went where the spiritsindicated. Neither she nor Mai said a word. Mai's breath was caught in herthroat. But she could not truly say she was surprised. After all, it had been awinter of ghosts.

Kara and Miss Aritomo approachedthe cave from the south. Snow had gotten into their clothes, up sleeves andinside collars, and with the cold came a terrible despair. More than once Karathought of turning around, but her friends needed her and it was a long wayback to the parking lot, now. Miss Aritomo must have considered it as well, butneither gave voice to the temptation. Or if Yuuka did speak, Kara did not hearher over the rage of winter that churned around them. They had given up tryingto talk to each other. Kara trudged after the ghosts and Miss Aritomo trudged afterKara, and in that way they found themselves on a trail that seemed almost cutinto the mountain slope, and then the dark mouth of the cave was there, loomingup on the right.

She saw Kubo first. The old monkseemed frozen, jagged ice forming on his arms and snow frosting his beard andhair. And yet he was still moving. Kara saw his hands in motion, fingerscontorting, and suddenly the storm seemed to die around him. Not everywhere.. not where Kara stood, or anywhere else on the mountain. But suddenly itseemed as though Kubo stood inside some protective sphere. The snow partedaround him, blew past him, and like a wet dog he shook off the ice that hadclung to him.